In the previous e-zine, we wrote about El Campo school district, and the focus on results coaching. Student success was achieved throughout the district. This story highlights one of the success stories.

Northside Elementary School historically struggled with student achievement scores. At the end of the 2017 school year, 70% of 5th grade students passed the STAAR math test. As the 2017-2018 school year started, district administrators, campus administrators and the campus math coach, recognized a need for a systematic, consistent plan of action. The implementation of this plan resulted in significant student growth. At the end of the 2018 school year, 94% of the 5th grade students passed the STAAR math test.

What factors contributed to this significant growth?

The instructional coach at Northside, LaShelle Hlavaty, recognized coaching as a vital and perhaps missing piece of the student achievement puzzle. When asked what created the huge jump in student achievement, she held up additional, critical pieces of the puzzle.

They are:

• Implementing a viable curriculum
• Recruiting/retaining coachable teachers
• Articulating standards and expectations
• Believing in each teacher’s ability to positively impact student learning
• Administrative support at the campus and district levels

LaShelle never underestimated the impact and influence of each coaching conversation. Even though four of the five teachers had never taught fifth grade math, she maintained her strong belief in them through offering coaching and feedback, which included statements of value, reflective questions regarding potential and possibilities, and renewed or refined goal setting.

LaShelle engendered trust within the fifth-grade team by constantly asking rather than telling teachers what they could do. She resisted the invitation to step in and take over the teaching role with students. Instead, she continued to articulate her strong belief in the ability of each teacher and to coach them to generate their best strategies, interventions, and plans.

As a teacher with 17 successful years of teaching math at Northside, she is an expert math teacher and has consistently proven her strong teaching skills. However, her focus now is building capacity in others. Now, when someone presses, “You’re the coach. Just tell me what to do.” Her response is, “Yes. And the emphasis is on the word coach. I can’t run your plays. I can only coach them.”

These days, LaShelle continues to fine-tune her coaching mindset and skills through ongoing learning and practice. Her focus is on building thinking and capacity in others as her Number One priority puzzle piece.

“I can’t run their plays. I will lose them if I do that.”

By Frances Shuster, PCC
and Reba Schumacher, PCC